<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>5 Times Steve Rogers Thinks His Teammates Died +1 by SteveisCaptain</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416813">5 Times Steve Rogers Thinks His Teammates Died +1</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveisCaptain/pseuds/SteveisCaptain'>SteveisCaptain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel, Marvel's Avengers (Video Game 2020), Marvel's Avengers (Video Game), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bisexual Tony Stark, Confused Steve Rogers, Confused Tony Stark, Deaf Clint Barton, Eventual Romance, F/M, Flashbacks, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, I dont know how to tag, I thought this was gonna be shorter tbh, M/M, Misunderstandings, Near Death Experiences, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, eventual spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:00:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,730</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416813</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveisCaptain/pseuds/SteveisCaptain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve is always worrying about his teammates and is terrified about losing any of them. He really couldn't go through that again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clint Barton/ Natasha Romanov (implied), Steve Rogers/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1- Hawekeye</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This game had me feeling someway and I just HAD to write Stony which was a shock to myself too because I thought I didn't ship Stony. Somehow this game made me ship them and I had some ideas. Also slight game spoilers? Don't worry it's nothing past the prologue of A-Day. I know the last chapter is definitely going to have game spoilers though so be prepared for that. Also-Also anything that's not directly canon in the game I just use preexisting material such as comics or the animated cartoons.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>       Steve is always worrying about his teammates and is terrified about losing any of them. He really couldn't go through the pain of losing someone again not after everything that happened with Bucky. It always felt like every death is somehow his fault because he's the team leader, he's the one that's supposed to keep everyone safe. On the brighter side of things he was pretty confident in the abilities of the Avengers and knew they could handle themselves pretty well. There were only a few times in his life that he ever doubted their abilities to keep themselves safe. </p><hr/><p>     He had been practicing his punches in his room when someone knocked on his door. He was about to yell 'come in' when Clint walked into the room and got his attention by waving at him.  </p><p>     <em>"Headed to the H.A.R.M room."</em> Clint signed. </p><p>     <em>"Ok, don't forget your comms just in case."</em> He signed. </p><p>     Clint made a gesture that seemed to say 'Yeah yeah stop your worrying old man' and left his room. Even though he knew Clint couldn't see him he let out an exhausted sigh at the notion. Clint acts like nothing bad has ever happened when he forgets his comms. The last time it happened Clint had come back from the H.A.R.M room with a lot of bruises and he got a new scar on his chin. It wasn't that he doubted Clint's abilities or anything like that Steve just worried about his team and wanted to make sure everyone was as safe as possible. He has been labeled by the team (but really it's mostly Tony) on many occasions as the 'mother hen' due to the obsession he has with keeping everyone safe. </p><p>     It was a little while after Steve had finished up his routine that he heard something weird coming from the comms. At first, he wasn't sure who it was but realized Clint was the only other person who had comms active. The H.A.R.M room wasn't that far from his room but he still ran as fast as he could to see what was wrong. </p><p>     "JARVIS do you have visual on Clint?" He asked the A.I. while rushing over.</p><p>     "No Captain Rogers, Tony is still working on fixing the cameras in the H.A.R.M room." JARVIS politely replied. </p><p>     Right now he was really cursing Tony's inability to accomplish one task before accepting another. Especially since no matter how many tasks Tony took on his suits always took priority to anything else. Whenever Steve tried to bring this up with Tony he couldn't seem to argue very long as Tony always pulls out his signature charming smile, and every thought he ever has is suddenly gone. It seems he still doesn't know how to talk to people he likes. </p><p>     When he arrives at the H.A.R.M room he finds Clint on the ground hunched over and gasping for breath with his bow and arrow lying on the floor next to him. He runs over to see what's wrong and quickly finds out that Clint seems to be choking on something. Right away he starts patting his back to try and get whatever is lodged in Clint's throat out. Finally, Clint stops choking and it takes him a little bit to stop coughing but he seems to be ok for a little while. </p><p>     Steve tries to get his attention and once he sees his eyes focused on him, he signs <em>"You ok?"</em></p><p>      Clint very clumsily tries to sign something but he can't seem to catch it before Clint passes out. </p><p>     Steve has always been grateful for his ability to stay calm while in stressful situations and this one is no different as he immediately checks Clint for a pulse.</p><p>     "JARVIS! I need medical attention for Clint in the H.A.R.M room stat!" Steve exclaimed. </p><p>     "Right away Captain." JARVIS replied.</p><p>     "Thank you JARVIS." Steve said.</p><p>     It didn't take long before Clint was taken away by the medical staff that is onboard the Chimera to see what was wrong with him and why he passed out. Steve of course was not allowed in the room with them and had to wait outside. It gave him time to think but mostly he stressed about if Clint was going to be ok or not. It helped when Natasha showed up to see what was going on because it gave him a chance to explain what had happened and get out of his head for a little bit. </p><p>     "Hmm. Sounds to me like Clint's a dumbass who forgot to sleep, chugged the whole pot of coffee, and then passed out due to over-exhaustion," Nat said.  </p><p>     "Nat! He could be dying in there." He said. </p><p>     "If he does die can I put on his grave 'Loved coffee so much it killed him'?" She asked while flipping through a magazine.</p><p>     At this point, Steve realized she was messing with him to take his mind off of things and huffed in frustration. "Nat that wouldn't be appropriate." </p><p>     "And why is that Captain?" </p><p>     "Because it'd be more appropriate to put 'Here lies Clint too dumb to remember how to breathe.'" He said with a dopey grin on his face.</p><p>     "Oh no that's Caps I just made a really dumb joke face what'd he say, Nat?" Tony asks walking into the waiting room with them. </p><p>     "Wait how do you know what my different faces look like?" He asked, "Do you like staring at my face, Tony?" He joked around while trying to hide his true feelings.</p><p>     The one thing that Steve still tried to keep was a professional attitude toward dating other members of the Avengers. He made a promise that he would never try to date a co-worker. He didn't want to make it awkward if they broke up and still had to constantly work together but these days he was closer and closer to breaking that promise. </p><p>     "Can you blame me, Cap? I get to work with America's sweetheart all day who wouldn't stare?" Tony said with a wink.</p><p>     "Why don't you two make out already? I'm sure it'd be a good way to honor Clint's death." Nat said deadpan. </p><p>     Without really thinking he said "Jealous Nat?" </p><p>     He didn't catch Tony's reaction but he noticed that Natasha rolled her eyes at him and huffed in annoyance. The thing about Nat was she was so good at controlling her emotions that if you knew she was annoyed it's because she wants you to know. This made him really confused as he was just joking around like they normally did. It kind of went into dangerous territory when he started flirting with Tony and he hopes he didn't blush or make it too obvious that he likes Tony but it still didn't make sense to him why she reacted that way. Before he could ask why Nat reacted that way the doctor came out to tell them how Clint was doing. Immediately all over their attention went to the doctor. </p><p>     "He's doing ok, he just had a concussion so that is why he passed out. He hasn't woken up yet so we cannot be certain what he was choking on." She stated.       </p><p>    "Thank you, Dr. Temple." He said. </p><p>     "No problem Cap. When he does wake up please notify me because I don't want him to leave before he's ready to go." She said</p><p>     Steve wasn't really surprised about that statement, Clint didn't like hospitals very much, and just because they tried to make the med-bay look less like a hospital didn't mean it wasn't in Clint's mind. It was the reason why Clint almost always had bandaids that he put on himself there was no way he would go to the med-bay for any less than him dying.  </p><p>     "Will do ma'am." He said while saluting. </p><p>     The room where they were keeping Clint in was big enough for all three of them to wait and see when Clint would wake up. Everyone kept uncharacteristically quiet especially for Tony who never knew when to stop talking. He didn't know if it was because of the awkward way their earlier conversation ended or seeing Clint in a hospital bed. After all the crazy things that had happened today, the silence was kind of nice. It didn't take too long for Clint to wake up and become aware of his surroundings. Once Clint saw all of the people in the room waiting to see if he was ok he seemed to have an apologetic expression and rubbed the back of his neck.</p><p>     Staring straight at Steve, Clint signed <em>"Chewing bubblegum in the H.A.R.M room is a mistake. Don't do it." </em></p><p>Steve sighed and facepalmed, sometimes working with the Avengers felt like having to take care of children. </p><p>     </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2- Black Widow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>It was looking to be a long and difficult mission ahead of them.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yeahhhhh so this took longer than a week whoops. School got way too hectic but thankfully this chapter is pretty long so I hope you guys like it. Also updated the tags to add in something that happens in this chapter. If I ever miss any tags please let me know.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     It was looking to be a long and difficult mission ahead of them. There was some new super-villain group calling themselves the Masters of Evil and at the helm of it was Steve’s old nemesis, Baron Zemo. Steve was not willing to underestimate him again as the last time they battled he lost someone very dear to him and he was not willing to let it happen to another one of his teammates.  </p><p>     The quinjet is usually quiet as everyone is always preparing themselves and gearing up for the fight ahead. The only distraction being Tony who never knows how to be quiet and is always starting up random conversations with whoever happens to be close by. </p><p>
  <em>     “Bruce, does the Hulk have a favorite color? I bet it’s red.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “How do you think Thor keeps his hair perfect all the time? Personally, I think it’s magic, I mean statistically speaking his hair should look bad at least one day of the year but so far nothing. Look I’ve been charting it down and for 375 days it’s been perfect. It’s just not fair!”  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “How many pens do you think I could fit in my mouth?”  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Nat, how long do you think I can keep confusing Steve with my jokes?” </em>
</p><p>     He doesn’t think he was meant to hear that last one but superhearing is a blessing and a curse. It was obvious that Tony was always striving to be inquisitive as most of his conversations involved asking questions. He noticed that Tony loved learning about everything and every time he learned new information his eyes seemed to twinkle. It was one of the things he loved the most about Tony. </p><p>     “Hey Cap, you mind if I design you a new suit?” Tony asked.</p><p>     Steve was perplexed “What’s wrong with this one?” </p><p>     The only thing that he would say was somewhat annoying with this suit is that it is not as comfortable as he would think it was and kind of loose. Other than that though the suit was very functional and mostly protected him, the only times it didn’t was when he was being needlessly reckless. Which some of his teammates would argue was all the time. </p><p>     “It was made by SHIELD for one and two it does nothing to show off your most defining feature,” Tony said with a smirk.</p><p>     “My arms?” He asked, genuinely confused.</p><p>     “Did doing time as a Capsicle mess with your brain? No your a-” </p><p>     Before Tony could finish his sentence Natasha yelled out “Prepare for landing boys.” Shortly after her statement, the quinjet started to slowly descend to their destination. </p><p>     “Thank you, Nat.” He said.</p><p>     It seemed that whatever Tony was going to say before they landed could wait as he switched over to mission mode issuing out orders to everyone on how the mission was going to go.  </p><p>     “Tony and Thor will go in first for air support and Hulk will help with control on the ground, then I’ll come with Nat to help clean up.”</p><p><br/>     He took a look around the room to see if everyone was good with that plan. He was not surprised to see Nat looking at him with an annoyed look on her face. He knew she would not like being left out of a lot of the fight but he was just trying to figure out the best way possible to keep the ones that could get hurt the most as backup. </p><p>     “Many will fall to the might of Thor’s hammer today, if you even need a boost man of iron let me know.” Thor said with a grin that seemed to be permanently on his face. </p><p>     Hulk, Thor, and Iron man seemed to be in agreement with the plan, and the only one who was still giving him the murder face was Natasha. The plan might have seemed more evenly distributed if Hawkeye were with them but he was on another mission for SHIELD right now. Clint seemed to mellow out all of the Avengers and worked with Natasha very well. It wasn’t like Steve didn’t have a great relationship with Natasha it was just that he didn’t quite understand her as well as Clint does. </p><p>     “If anybody has a problem with this plan let me know now, we are still a team after all.” He said.</p><p>     There was silence for a long while and he took that to mean that everyone was good with the plan. Even if he still saw from the corner of his eye Natasha looking less than pleased with it, he elected to ignore it and assumed she would still go through with the plan as intended. </p><p>     “Alright, Avengers move out.” He said. </p><p>     They all left the quinjet and proceeded to scope out the area. There did not seem to be any trouble at first the guards towards the front being laughably easy to take out but once they got closer to the base of operations things seemed to get harder. There were turrets, lasers, flying enemies, and in the middle of all the chaos was Zemo himself. He figured it was a trap to lure him out into the open and Zemo would then send in his lackeys and all attack him at once. He was being diligent though and kept his focus on Zemo while taking out one of the turrets with a throw of his shield. </p><p>     It was then that he realized that Natasha was nowhere near him. He looked around the battlefield once more and still could not see her however he did catch a glance of Iron Man taking out one of the members of the Masters of Evil with his repulsors. </p><p>     “Does anyone have a visual on Black Widow?” He said.</p><p>     There was no reply. </p><p>     “Hello is anyone there?” </p><p>     Again no reply. He tried to get Iron Man’s attention but it seemed Tony was paying too much attention to defeating a member of the Masters of Evil who called himself The Melter. Assuming that comms had been disrupted he tries to look around the battlefield for Natasha while also trying not to get hit too much. He sees Hulk tangled up with Abomination but no sight of Natasha so he moves on. </p><p>     He finally gets sight of Natasha and sees her fighting with Zemo. At first, he’s comforted by the fact that she is still ok but then he panics a little on the inside as Zemo is a force to be reckoned with. There also seems to be something different about Zemo as his costume normally consists of only his purple mask, a cape, and a sword but now he has something attached to his legs. </p><p>     Right as he is about to throw his shield at Zemo, Natasha grabs onto him with her zipline. It stops him in the middle of his action and he swears he saw Zemo turn to him and smirk. The last thing he sees before being run into by Abomination is Zemo using a jetpack to propel himself and Natasha into the air.</p><p>     As he stands up to strike back at Abomination he already sees Hulk throwing Abomination onto the ground and roaring. He looks up to the sky and sees Zemo and Natsahs fighting in the sky. Natasha seems to have the upper hand but he knows that Zemo has to have a bigger plan in mind. He sees Hulk go to grab a chunk of land to throw at Zemo as he is flying through the air but Steve stops him.</p><p>     “Hulk wait! Black Widow is up there with him!” He said.</p><p>     Thankfully Hulk hears him and instead throws the piece of rubble to another approaching enemy to take them out. He leaves Hulk to go try and find Iron Man or Thor just in case Natasha gets into bigger trouble with Zemo but as soon as he finds Thor he sees a figure falling in the sky. </p><p>     It was an all too familiar scene. </p><hr/><p>
  <em>     Bucky wasn’t supposed to follow him onto the plane. He knew it was a trap by Zemo but he wanted to take that fall alone and not endanger anyone else. Not to mention if this plane made it anywhere near innocent lives and endangered them.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “I thought I said not to follow me.” He said. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “What and let you have that victory hanging over my head? Forget it Cap.” Bucky said.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p><em>     He smiled; it was just like Bucky to crack a joke in the middle of a heated situation. He proceeded to make it to the front of the plane where he found a bomb</em> <em>that had less than two minutes left on it.  </em></p><p>
  <em>     “Buck this things going to explode. You need to jump off right now.” He said while working out a way to defuse the bomb.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “Here let me see,” Bucky said.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     He moved over so that Bucky could work on defusing the bomb. Bucky was always better at those kinds of things then he was but he didn’t want to see the young boy die and would rather him jump ship now.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “If the timer gets too low you need to jump Buck.” He said. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     From where he was on the plane he could see the number progressively going down and as soon as it got to a minute he knew he had to step in. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “Bucky the best chance of survival you have now is jumping. I’ll deal with the bomb” He said.  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>     At this point, they were flying over the ocean and while Bucky would have to wait until a rescue party got there it would be much less painful than getting blown up and leave Bucky with a chance of surviving.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “No dice it seems I got myself stuck. Buck said, gesturing to the spot where his one leg was caught in the plane’s ladder “Don’t worry I’ve almost got it, Cap.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     He went to help Bucky and try to get him unstuck. There was no way he was going to willingly stand by and let this boy die.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “I’m sorry Steve but the world needs Captain America more than it needs Bucky Barnes.”  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     That was the last thing he heard before being kicked off the plane and began falling from a great height.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “Bucky!! No!!!” He screamed. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>     The last thing he saw was a Bucky saluting him and a big explosion, then everything went black. </em>
</p><hr/><p>     He didn’t see Natasha being caught. The last thing he remembered was watching a figure fall from the sky. He looked up and saw Thor looking at him with concern. His breathing was ragged, his helmet was gone, and he found himself on the floor hugging his knees to his chest.</p><p>     “What happened? Is-Is Black Widow?” He couldn't seem to get the words out. </p><p>     He was prepared for the worst to come out of Thor’s mouth. The statement Natasha is dead kept going through his mind over and over again. </p><p>     “Black Widow is a mighty warrior, as soon as she was caught by Iron Man she shot Zemo down.” Thor said.</p><p>     He let out a breath of relief and willed his body to stop panicking. It did not work as his hands continued to shake for a little while. Instead of getting up and moving on like a good leader would he was stuck on the ground in fear. He tried to get his breathing back to normal but it was harder said than done.</p><p>     “I will go get Iron Man as he knows how to better deal with panic attacks.” Thor said. </p><p>     Oh was that what was happening to him? Is that why he couldn’t seem to get up from his spot on the floor? That seemed….. Long overdue to be honest. Thanks to his friend Sam Wilson he knew that PTSD was very common for a lot of folks who went to war. He tried again to calm down and slow his breathing. When he focused solely on his breathing it seemed to work and his breathing started to even out. That is around the time that Tony showed up and stepped out of his armor. </p><p>     “Steve, here feel my breathing” Tony said placing Steve’s hand on his stomach. </p><p>     Having Tony help him through this really helped him and once he got his breathing even with Tony’s everything else seemed to come easier. It still took him a while to get up from his position as he didn’t want to let go of Tony but he needed to let his teammates know he was better now. </p><p>     “Thank you, Tony. That really helped.” He said.</p><p>     “Any time Rogers.” Tony said with the softest voice Steve has ever heard come from him.</p><p>     Now that Steve was in a better headspace he realized that there was no more battling going on and there was hardly anyone around anymore. Even the Hulk had transformed back to Bruce Banner in the time it took him to recover.  </p><p>     “Did I miss the rest of the fun?” He asked. </p><p>     That got Tony to chuckle. “Oh yeah, you missed out on new bruises and all that fun stuff.” </p><p>     He laughed a little bit and that is when he noticed Natasha looking uncharacteristically sheepish kicking the ground. He figured she felt guilty for making him worry about her but he was just glad to see her alive. He was so proud of her for getting the jump on Zemo when even he didn’t want her joining in on the fight in fear of losing her. He walked over to her and hugged her.</p><p>     “I am so proud of you.” He said.</p><p>     He felt her hug him back and when she pulled away he didn’t mention the tear that was trailing down her cheek. She wiped it away before any of the other Avengers could see but whispered to him.</p><p>     “Can’t let the others know how soft I’m getting or they might force me to watch rom coms trying to get me to cry.” She said. </p><p>     Hearing that he threw his head back and laughed. Even though it was a harrowing mission he was glad his team was there for him to make him feel better. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you guys liked it leaving kudos or comments is always appreciated :) </p><p>Again sorry it took so long and let me know if you liked the chapter because some parts of it were really hard to figure out how to write and I had massive writer's block for some of it. Hopefully, I don't write the characters too out of character especially Steve as I just project myself onto him XD</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3- Thor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Steve doesn’t like going to sleep and often avoids it when he can.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am so sorry it took this long. I had an idea for the end of this chapter that I had to completely rethink when I rewatched a scene between Steve and Tony in the game. It didn't change too much from the chapter but I still needed to make minor changes for it to make sense later. Also, I feel like I change Steve and Tony's dynamic a little from the previous chapter but I kind of like it let me know what you guys think of the chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>     Steve doesn’t like going to sleep and often avoids it when he can. Sleep is when the nightmares start and thanks to the super-soldier serum he didn’t need it as often as a normal person does, but he’s still human and eventually, he needs to sleep.    </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     The first time he tested his limits of how long he could go without sleeping was after Bucky died and he woke up from the ice. Every time he did try to sleep after the ice, he had awful nightmares of Bucky dying over and over again. He really wishes that he never let Bucky follow him around in the first place but Steve always thought he would protect Bucky with his life. Turns out Bucky must have had the same idea in his mind too. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     There were other minor nightmares that he had sometimes too like the super soldier running out and going back to his health before it, seeing people constantly dying in the war, and a still young Peggy Carter dying in his arms. These did not happen as often but still had the same effect on him. After any nightmare, he would wake up in a cold sweat gasping for air. The only person that seemed to notice this was J.A.R.V.I.S as the A.I would ask him every time after he woke up from a nightmare if he was okay. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     As he laid down and drifted off to sleep, he hoped that the nightmare would not be as bad tonight. </span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     The dream started off normal with Steve sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons. He was wearing civilian clothing which felt strange as he rarely was without his star-spangled suit. The problem was that it felt too normal, it felt like he was living a script for how to live a normal life and he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Suddenly the winds changed to a harsh gust as the air seemed to charge with energy. He could feel an oncoming storm that felt slightly familiar. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     The pigeons sensed what was to come and started to all fly away. Before they could all get away one was unfortunately zapped with lightning and dropped like a stone to the ground. Steve looked up at the sky as Thor flew by, chasing down a blurry figure. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     He lept into action with his suit and shield appearing on him out of nowhere. He quickly caught up with Thor and recognized the other person to be Hyperion from Squadron Sinister. It was slightly strange seeing him along since Hyperion rarely was seen without his other team members. He had a bad feeling about this and felt like Thor was being led into a trap.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     “Thor maybe we should call for backup.” Steve called out.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     Thor shook his head “The fiend has insulted my worthiness. This fight is against me and him alone.” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     He really didn’t like that explanation but it’s not like Steve could talk him out of it. Once Thor had an idea in his head it was hard to persuade him otherwise. He still thought this was an awful trap and the rest of the Squadron were bound to jump out at any moment now. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     The fight wore on with Thor shooting lightning at Hyperion and Hyperion countering by shooting lasers at Thor. The two rarely traded actual punches and seemed to float around each other. The one advantage that Thor seemed to have against Hyperion was his hammer but even being hit by it didn’t seem to phase Hyperion too much.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     “That’s all you got?” Hyperion laughs. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     “Just getting started, my puny friend.” Thor shot back. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     Steve was just about to call the Avengers together so if anything seemed to go wrong then they could jump in and help when the rest of Squadron Sinister showed up. Nighthawk, Power Princess, Speed Demon, and Doctor Spectrum all circled around Thor. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     “What is the meaning of this Hyperion? Only the two of us are supposed to be fighting.” Thor said.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     “You think I’d actually pass up on the chance to get rid of one of my greatest enemies in the name of ‘worthiness’? I’m not one of the good guys Thor.” Hyperion said with a smirk. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     Steve tried to call the Avengers, but his voice wouldn't work, and he was frozen to the ground. His only saving grace was that the Squadron didn’t seem to notice he was there but he also couldn’t do much to save Thor at the moment. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     To his credit, Thor put up a valiant effort and fought for a pretty long time until the Squadron seemed to overwhelm him in sheer numbers. One man could only face a hoard alone for so long. Thor fell and was held to the ground by the Squadron as Hyperion flew above him. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     “The mighty Thor finally defeated. Any last words?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     Thor turned his face and looked straight at Steve as he said “Why did you let me die?” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>     The last thing Steve saw in the dream was Hyperion’s red laser shooting out of his eyes.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>     He woke up in a cold sweat gasping for air. His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. Trying to calm down Steve just sat there trying to get his breathing back to normal and using the new techniques J.A.R.V.I.S taught him. After he had the panic attack when he thought Natasha had died he had Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S teach him new ways to get his breathing back to normal. Finally, he got his breathing back to normal but his heart was still beating really hard. He couldn't get the image of Hyperion killing Thor out of his mind.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Mr. Rogers, do you seem to be ok?” J.A.R.V.I.S asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     The voice of the A.I really did calm him down and he was glad to have J.A.R.V.I.S available to him at all time without bothering him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Yes, thank you J.A.R.V.I.S.” Steve replied. </span>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     He did feel fine but there was no way he would be able to go back to sleep now, so Steve decided to do some pushups next to his bed. He decided to take off his shirt as he was still pretty hot after the nightmare. Working out helped make him feel better after intense nightmares and was usually his go-to after particularly bad ones. The only other thing that seemed to calm him down after nightmares was sketching and was his go-to before he got the serum. He was halfway done with his set of push-ups when he heard a knock on his door.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “J.A.R.V.I.S told me that you were up. Can I come in?” Tony asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     Steve sent a confused look through the door. While he had always suspected that the other members of the team also had problems with nightmares they had never gone to visit each other this late at night. Although talking to J.A.R.V.I.S always seemed to calm his nerves so talking to Tony for a little bit could be helpful.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
  <span>“Yeah come in.” Steve said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     As Tony walked in Steve realized his state of dress might be inappropriate as he was shirtless with only sweatpants on and went to find a new shirt. Unlike Tony’s room, everything was organized and put where it is supposed to be so it shouldn’t be hard to find a new one but there was something stopping him from putting one on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Now I understand why Aunt Peggy couldn’t help herself after you got the serum.” Tony said with a wink. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     Steve couldn’t help his face heating up and knew he must be blushing bright red. Tony had explained to him one day how Peggy Carter was very present in his life as she and Howard helped create a lot of what S.H.I.E.L.D was today. It made him feel better knowing Tony had at least one positive parental figure in his life. It took a little bit but he came up with something to say. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “I like to think I charmed her with my winning personality, the serum was just an added bonus.” Steve said, shooting Tony with a wink.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “It’s funny the one thing I never expected you to be was a jokester. The old man never factored that into his stories about the ‘perfect’ Captain America” Tony said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     Steve took the opportunity to find a shirt and pull it on himself. He couldn’t really stand the look Tony got on his face when remembering anything related to Howard Stark. Steve understood that while he might have seen Howard as a friend, he did not see him as a particularly good father. The way Tony talks about his father makes him want to burn every available picture of him and Howard being friendly from existence. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “That’s because Howard only knew Captain America. He never did have the time to learn about the real Steve Rogers.” Steve said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     Tony stopped fiddling with random things in Steve’s room and looked back at him with a slightly shocked expression. Tony recovered from the look fast and seemed to pretend like it never happened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Howard never had the time for anything except himself as far as I’m concerned. But that’s not what I came here for.” Tony said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Why did you come in?” Steve asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Well, whenever I can’t sleep I either like to go to my workshop or blow off some steam, and tonight it’s the latter. So I came to ask if you’d like to suit up and spar and judging by your earlier state of dress you were either working out orrr…” Tony said trailing off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “I’d love to spar Tony. Also for your information I only do the other activity in the shower.” Steve said with a wink.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     Tony blushed a beautiful bright red. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Good to know. Or not. Guess I’ll have to inform the media that the blushing virgin Captain America rumor is false.” Tony said slightly flustered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Well the media also assumes that I’m straight so you probably shouldn’t be going to them for information about me.” Steve said with a smirk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     He doesn’t know why he felt comfortable enough to say that around Tony but he wouldn’t ever regret telling Tony anything and the same sentiment applied here. Most people assumed he was straight because of the time period he used to live in but it wasn’t like LGBT+ people didn’t exist back then. It was just harder for those in the community to be accepted and a young Steve hated the discrimination that they faced just because they dared to be different. Honestly the happiest he was after the ice was when the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  
  <span>Tony gave him a small smile “Well that certainly makes two of us, who would’ve imagined two Avengers are bisexual disasters. Hey, we should come out on the same day to stick it to all those conservative religious republicans.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Sounds like a plan but for now we should get suited up. I’m ready to kick your ass.” Steve said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Language Stevie.” Tony shot back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>     “Hey, that’s my line.” Steve said.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As always please don't forget to leave kudos and comments they are greatly appreciated :D</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you enjoyed it!! It's my first fanfic since I did things on Wattpad so I'm pretty rusty lol (also kind of thought this was going to be shorter whoops). Also, I wanted more Deaf Clint but only know a little sign language if I portray anything wrong let me know! Don't really know how updates are going to go I'll try once a week but if college gets to be too hard it'll probably slow down. </p><p>If you liked it remember to leave kudos and comments are always appreciated :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>